Fire-extinguishing apparatus.



PATENTED FEB. 7, 1905.

F. THOMPSON.

FIRE EXTING-UISHING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 19, 1903.

UNITED STATES Patented February 7, 1905.

FRANK THOh'IPSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FIRE-EXTINGUISHING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 781,697, dated February '7, 1905.

Application filed August 19, 1903. Serial No. 170.018.

To all, whom it may rmtccrn:

Be it known that I, FRANK Tnonrsoy, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fire-Extinguishing Apparatus. of which the followingis specilication.

As is well known, extreme difliculty is often experienced in putting out oil tires by reason of the fact that when water is thrown on the blazing oil the oil immediately rises to the top of the water and continues to burn, so that it impossible to extinguish the lire at all unless the same be practically smothered.

This invention is to provide a means for quenching or smothering lires, especially oil lires, by means of sand or other powdered substance, which is scattered over the burning oil by the apparatus of this invention in such quantities as to entirely smother the tire and at the same time obviate the danger of damage which necessarily results from flooding a building with the amount of water necessary to quench an oil fire even of small proportions.

In the drawings illustrating the invention, Figure l is a side elevation of the apparatus of this invention; Fig. 2, an enlarged sectional view of the apparatus employed for scattering the sand, and Fig. 3 a plan view of the apparatus of Fig. 2.

As shown in Fig. 1, the apparatus consists of a supply-tank A of any suitable dimensions, from which leads a pressure-supply pipe a, connecting with any suitable source of pressure-supply, (not shown,) and in the supply-pipe a is a check-valve a of any suitable construction, which valve maintains the pressure within the tank after the same has been supplied by means of the pressure-supply pipe. The tank is adapted to contain sand, dust, or any powdered material in suitable quantities to supply a large amount of sand in case tire should break out in the oil, and the material employed is preferably one which is fine enough to be blown out in such quantities that the tire will be smothered by the dust.

Leading from the tank A is a suitable l header-pipe B, which pipe is intended to be located along the ceilii'lg of a room in which the oil is stored and is so arranged that in case of fire the sand or dust from the header-pipe will be blown down onto the lire through a series of nozzles of any suitable number, which nozzles are litted into the header-pipe and downwardly extend therefrom. Each of the nozzles, as shown in Fig. 2, is provided with a strip-shaped support 6 to the crossyoke ll", of which is pivotally secured, by means of a pivot c, a fan-wheel (J, provided with a series of radially-extending obliquelydisposed blades or wings c so arranged that when sand or dust is blown outof the nozzles and strikes against the blades of the fanwheel the latter will revolve at a high rate of speed and serve to scatter the sand or dust in the form of a shower over a wide radius of surface, thereby distributing the sand and enabling it to act upon the lire at widely-separated points.

\Vithin the mouth of the nozzle 6 is located a fuse-plug D, consisting of two sections (l fused together, which fusible plug is made of any suitable material which will be fused when the temperature of the room in which the oil is stored rises above a certain degree, allowing the two sections of the plug to be forced outwardly by the pressure of the sand within the pipe, after which the sand will be blown through the fan-wheel and distributed over the burning oil.

It is desirable to make the wheel of a suflicient diameter to be readily acted upon by the sand, which requires a greater surface to act upon than water under similarcircumstances. Moreover, the plugs should have nozzles of a suflicient diameter to allow a ready escape for the sand within the pipe.

It will thus be seen that the invention is one of great practical utility in lighting fires of the class described and at the same time is I simple in construction and may beinstalled in all places where a water apparatus for the same purpose might be used.

Although the invention has been described as a device for lighting oil lires, it is obvious that it may be employed in other capacities and will be found extremely desirable where damage from a flood of water is great, since the sand and dust blown out will not leak through floors and injure the contents of rooms located below that in which the fire takes place.

What I regard as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1; In a fire-extinguishing apparatus, the combination of a tank, a non-combustible powdered material within the tank, a pressurepipe leading to the tank, a header-pipe leading therefrom and provided with a nozzle, a deflecting-wheel on the nozzle adapted to deflect and scatter the powdered material within the tank, and means for automatically opening the nozzle to allow the powdered material to be deflected and scattered by the pressure within the tank, substantially as described.

2. In a fire-extinguishing apparatus, the combination of a tank, a noncombustible powdered material within the tank,a pressurepipe leading to the tank, a check-valve in the pressure-pipe for maintaining the pressure within the tank, a header-pipe leading from the tank,a nozzle on the header-pipe provided with a fusible plug, and a deflecting-wheel on the nozzle adapted to be rotated by the powdered material discharging under pressure for distributing the same, substantially as described.

3. In a fire-extinguishing apparatus, the combination of a tank, a non-combustible powdered material within the tank adapted to smother a fire, a pressure-supply pipe leading from the tank, a check-valve Within the supply-pipe adapted to maintain pressure within the tank, a header-pipe leading from the tank of a size sufficient to allow the powdered material to be blown therethrough, a series of nozzles on the header-pipe, each nozzle being provided with a fusible plug adapted to be fused by an increase of temperature and further provided with a deflecting-wheel rotatabl y mounted on the nozzle and adapted to be rotated by the discharge of the powdered material to scatter the same and smother the fire, substantially as described.

FRANK THOMPSON.

Witnesses:

SAMUEL W. BANNING, WALKER BANNING. 

